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Looking back over the four centuries covered in this book, it is curious that each of Russia’s Times of Troubles—1610–13, 1917–18 and 1991–99—ended with a new version of the old autocracy, eased by the habits and traditions of its fallen predecessor, and justified by the urgent need to restore order, radically modernize and regain Russia’s place as a great power.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore The Romanovs 1613–1918 (2016)

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More quotes by Simon Sebag Montefiore

He hated Genrikh because true possession is to share the fabric of someone else’s life, he decided; it’s about proximity; love as geography.

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‘Every love story’s a requiem,’ she told her.

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What’s important is not who you love but who loves you.

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Heartbreak, he thought, is an agonizing disease that you’re delighted to have.

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History is never repeated, but it borrows, steals, echoes and commandeers the past to create a hybrid, something unique out of the ingredients of past and present.

The Romanovs 1613–1918 (2016)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Simon Sebag Montefiore (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.